The Stax thread (New)

[Downrange]

Just messin' with ya!

Great post!

[Johnny Blue]

This is not a new idea: I remember at least 15 years ago getting out the Duraglit (a UK metal-polishing wadding material) and spending a happy half-day cleaning all my hi-fi's mains supply plugs and connections, with dramatic results.

But, over the years, I've got lazy... until yesterday, when I decided to change the mains socket on the wall to an unswitched type, and polish up my 313's mains plug's pins (also including internally, where the [UK standard] 13 amp fuse fits).

Lo and behold! A big improvement in tunefulness, clarity and HF (in particular) detail. Great (if it'd cost me £50 to pay for the 'upgrade', I'd have been happy)!

In the past, I've been known to remove the standard fuses (i.e., the 13 amp ones inside a standard UK plug) and solder in the mains leads: this is OK because my hi-fi components (the amps and power supplies) have mains supply fuses fitted inside them. I'm tempted to try the same with my Stax 313 mains plug, but I can't see any user-changeable mains fuse on the back of the energizer, so am unsure as to whether this would be OK to do (although it occurs to me that in other countries, there's no fuse fitted as standard in the mains supply plug anyway, so it can't be necessary... ).

(Usual warnings and provisos apply: don't try this at home, don't do anything you're not competent to do [E & OE], no responsibility is stated or implied, etc., etc.)

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by audiod

Hi Everyone,
I’m new to this forum, but certainly not new to electrostatic headphones. I got the Koss ESP-9’s when they first came out. I got my first Stax headphones (SR-3 with a SRA-3s amp) in the early seventies. I’m including some pictures of my current family of headphones and drivers. I would like to see some pictures of your family of headphones, especially the rare and hard to find. I wish I found out about this thread a long time ago. Better late than never.

Guess the make and model numbers and win a trip to Jamaica (just joking!).

AudioD

Oooh, nice collection and welcome aboard audiod

You don't have any SR-X Pros in there you wanna sell do you? j/k... sortof

Yeah you woulda had a ball in the last mega Stax thread and I'm sure your long Stat history will give us some great insights.

Damn that's a nice collection! erm, ok move along...

[audiod]

Originally Posted by smeggy

Oooh, nice collection and welcome aboard audiod

You don't have any SR-X Pros in there you wanna sell do you? j/k... sortof

Yeah you woulda had a ball in the last mega Stax thread and I'm sure your long Stat history will give us some great insights.

Damn that's a nice collection! erm, ok move along...

Smeggy,
Thanks for the welcome. I have 3 sets of SRXIII's but no pro's. The only pro driver I have is the SRM-1 mkII Pro. I mostly use the SRX's with the SRA-12s amp. I have a Behringer DSP-8024 EQ in the tape loop and have custom EQ presets for all my low-bias phones (SR-5 w/SRX elements, SRXIII & Lambda). I use the SRM-1 mkII Pro mostly with my Lambda Pro's.
AudioD

[smeggy]

Nice, good to have you here

[jirams]

..............is there anything I can do to brighten up the treble a bit ??

[wualta]

Originally Posted by audiod

Hi Everyone, I’m new to this forum, but certainly not new to electrostatic headphones. Guess the make and model numbers...

Wow, cool! Welcome! Always good to have another Michigander.

Waaaaaayyda minnit-- There's a ringer in the lineup, a pair of Yamaha Orthodynamics! Not to mention the obvious K701. But do I see three (3!) pairs of ESP-9s?

EDIT: One of the "rare headphone" threads:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...highlight=rare

.

[Snacks]

Originally Posted by Carl

Well they're closer to the 404 than the Omega II, at least.

Electrostatic transducers are all pretty sonically neutral. It's the headphone housing/cable and the amp that account for most of the sound signature.

Carl - Due to our posting at the exact same time, and me running of to review Gordie's 4070 thread, I missed your response. However, through some sort of divine intervention, I found your comments regarding the 4070; weird.

I miss the old thread! Instead of one having to scroll right, at the bottom of the page there should have been (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.....20 (Last Page)). As you move through pages, the hyperlinks at the bottom should give you more page options. Or, instead of that, why not a drop down box, that also gave you option of manually entering the page number. However, the former, IMO, is the better option.

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by jirams

..............is there anything I can do to brighten up the treble a bit ??

Not without some EQ. I tend to run mine from computer rigs so adding a little up top is easy when needed. They take very well to eq which is just as well as they are somewhat 'reserved' up top. I still wouldn't give mine up despite liking bright cans as they are so musically satisfying.

[audiod]

Originally Posted by wualta

Wow, cool!

Waaaaaayyda minnit-- There's a ringer in the lineup, a pair of Yamaha Orthodynamics! Not to mention the obvious K701. But do I see three (3!) pairs of ESP-9s?

wualta,
Yes, I have 3 ESP-9’s and 2 E/9 energizers. They are the second most uncomfortable phones ever made (the ESP-6 being the first). I don’t use them much anymore, but when I do I am always amazed on how “Right” the sound is. They sound great on all types of music. The tonal balance is “Right”. I plan on taking one of them and cutting the cups off and making them a true dipole, replace the pads, band and wire.

The Yamaha HP-1’s are a very interesting phone that uses a thin film diaphragm with wires on it between two magnetic perforated plates. They have great dynamics, bottom end and do a good job with Rock and Pop music that is over processed. Kinda like a cross between a Stat and a dynamic phone. Fostex still makes a interesting planar magnetic headphone on paper. I have never heard them. Fostex is mostly a pro sound company. Stats are still the best.

I use the K701 and HP-1 with a Musical Fidelity X-Can V3. I like the 701's better than my Senn HD650's (now sold). I have a Denon mini system in my bedroom that I use the K701 most of the time.

I have a question for everyone. Has anybody connected the ESP-9’s to a Stax amp or SRD?

I am also looking for a backup Lambda Pro. Maybe an interesting trade?

AudioD

[Andre Jute]

Originally Posted by Downrange

What's a "solecism?" [of design]

An infelicity.

Andre Jute
Impedance is futile, you will be simulated into the triode of the Borg. -- Robert Casey

[wualta]

Originally Posted by audiod

Yes, I have 3 ESP-9’s... They are the second most uncomfortable phones ever made (the ESP-6 being the first).

That's exactly what I've been tellin' these kids..

Does the 9 have an elliptical diaphragm, like the later Stax Lambda?

Originally Posted by audiod

I plan on taking one of them and cutting the cups off and making them a true dipole, replace the pads, band and wire.

I'd be very interested in the results of this particular experiment.

What did Koss use to absorb the backwave in the 9?

Originally Posted by audiod

The Yamaha HP-1’s are a very interesting phone... Fostex still makes an interesting planar magnetic headphone on paper. I have never heard them. Stats are still the best.

Fostex is still in the planar business, but there's a catch. Do a search for Fostex here on Head-Fi. You may find a crumb or two of useful, not to say provocative, information.

Can't beat 'stats, but a few of the planar magnetics came and still come awfully close. Again, there's a catch.

By the way, we had a couple of ESP-9 owners in the farflung outposts of empire here, but other than Spritzer in Iceland, I'm not certain if any 9s are in fact still in their possession.

Look around. You'll find this a wild, uninhibited place, with a whole smorgasbord of folks using a greater variety of headphones than ever existed before crammed into a greater variety of audio lifestyles than ever existed before. Truly a brave new world.

.

[smeggy]

Sadly I've never heard any Koss 'stats and they aren't that plentiful on ebay either, well, not good versions at good prices anyhow. It's getting hard to justify more cans now, especially as I still have a bunch of other stuff like amps and DACs to get. One day though, one day...

Dammit, now I want a set of SP 9s just to see how they sound but at 30+ years old I'm reluctant to spend much cash on them so I guess I'll just wait to see if I can snag a set cheap. I might stick a want ad in the forums to see if anyone bites

[paulllaser]

Smeggy,

If you would like, I have 2 pairs of Koss ESP-9's and I would be willing to send you a pair to listen to for a while. The second pair has a malfunctioning adapter which I have to repair. May ultimately need the functioning one so I don't want to sell them at this time. By the way, I recently bought a second pair of 404's from Azure that are rumored to have originated from you. The other pair I have are new from a Lambda Pro repair/upgrade. I'm interested to see the difference a few hours has on these. Let me know if you want to try the 9's.



Rob

[mikeg]

audiod - Have you had a chance to compare any of your Stax phones to a Sennheiser Orpheus HE90?

Originally Posted by audiod

wualta,
Yes, I have 3 ESP-9’s and 2 E/9 energizers. They are the second most uncomfortable phones ever made (the ESP-6 being the first). I don’t use them much anymore, but when I do I am always amazed on how “Right” the sound is. They sound great on all types of music. The tonal balance is “Right”. I plan on taking one of them and cutting the cups off and making them a true dipole, replace the pads, band and wire.

The Yamaha HP-1’s are a very interesting phone that uses a thin film diaphragm with wires on it between two magnetic perforated plates. They have great dynamics, bottom end and do a good job with Rock and Pop music that is over processed. Kinda like a cross between a Stat and a dynamic phone. Fostex still makes a interesting planar magnetic headphone on paper. I have never heard them. Fostex is mostly a pro sound company. Stats are still the best.

I use the K701 and HP-1 with a Musical Fidelity X-Can V3. I like the 701's better than my Senn HD650's (now sold). I have a Denon mini system in my bedroom that I use the K701 most of the time.

I have a question for everyone. Has anybody connected the ESP-9’s to a Stax amp or SRD?

I am also looking for a backup Lambda Pro. Maybe an interesting trade?

AudioD